Brewery under fire for marketing breakfast beer (NZ Herald)

Move over, mimosas. There’s a new before-noon drink in town — in Marlborough, New Zealand, specifically.

The Moa brewery is getting a lot of free publicity for marketing its latest bottle-fermented beer as the perfect breakfast beverage. But not necessarily the kind of publicity they sought.

The beer is officially launching at a 7 a.m. event in Auckland Thursday, and Moa is joking that those invited should zip their lips about their early-morning indulgence.

“Moa have just started brewing a Breakfast Beer, true story, and to celebrate we’re having a celebration at a place detailed below including a bunch of things detailed below,” the brewery writes on its Facebook page. “You’re officially invited but you probably shouldn’t drive there or tell the HR person in your office about it.”

Not so funny, say health officials.

“It’s a completely irresponsible stunt from a health and addiction perspective, because it is normalizing pathological behavior,” one New Zealand addiction specialist told the New Zealand Herald.

The complaints keep rolling in, with some worried about drunk drivers at a time of day when kids are walking to school, and others saying the stunt seeks to capitalize on a national problem.

Boozy breakfasts aren’t anything new, and Moa’s owners say alcohol can be safely consumed at any hour of the day — as long as drinker are responsible.

“Look at cultures like Germany where a lager in the right circumstances is part of the culture, or Italy where the grappa is used as a morning pick-me-up,” co-owner Geoff Ross told the New Zealand Herald. “Cultures around the world consume alcohol in the right way, and that includes breakfast.”

I’ll end with this lovely bit of marketing from Moa: According to the bewery, their cherry-flavored wheat beer is “a beer the ladies can enjoy too.”

<sarcasm>Thank goodness. I’ve been waiting for a beer I can enjoy as a woman. < /sarcasm>